WFRP/40K games shut down by GW [merged]

[Meeki]

Huh... well there goes my desire to buy the book. The 40k universe, IMO, is far to large to cover the whole thing in 1 book and I would love more supplements. To me they are very important.

Buying the developers kits or w/e for 4th ed would have saved GW alot of time, but they already created Dark Heresy and the money is invested. It's strange they would do this but maybe it was some internal issue?

Also, Dark Heresy lines the shelves of gaming stores around where I live. Doesn't seem to be moving too fast.

 

[Voadam]

Maybe you read a different announcement than I did. Where did you see that they closed down the company?

Black Industries regret to announce that Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods out in September will be the final product to be released from Black Industries.

Sounds like they will be closed down after September.

 

[Sitara]

Meekl, buy as many copis of DH as you can afford. I am serious, they will be worth 10-20 times what they cost now in a matter of years!

 

[DragonLancer]

Huh. My first reaction was to try to pick the book up immediately.

Why would you lose interest? Is "support" that key for this product? You anticipate needs not already supported by the full GW line?

I was going to pick up a copy this week but I'm not so sure I want to now. Any game that does not recieve support material is going to die a quick death. I know it shouldn't, and you know it shouldn't, but its going to. I think what was going to keep momentum for DH was that as it went along we were going to get a Rogue Trader rulebook (this shuld have been the first book IMO though) and then a Space Marine one. Theres only so much you are going to be able to happily run as an Inquisitors retinue.

Surely BI and GW knew that this is was going to be the case some time ago, and yet they continued with it. You can see where the dislike for the company comes from and where they come across as money grabbers.

 

[CapnZapp]

Well, with only three days from official release date to official kill-off date, I see no future for Dark Heresy, even though are a few supplements left in the pipeline.

 

[2WS-Steve]

Huh. My first reaction was to try to pick the book up immediately.

Why would you lose interest? Is "support" that key for this product? You anticipate needs not already supported by the full GW line?

I was under the impression that the first book was designed to cover just beginning characters, and that they would release other books to cover later stages of your career and the other big races of the world -- basically more like Scion: Demigod than like the D&D corebooks.

 

[Sitara]

Does nay1 know if they will continue printing the wfrp core book at least? It owuld be stupid to stop its print runs, seriously its a gorgeous book and its basically allll you need to play the game (though the bestiary would be nice too)

 

[crazy_cat]

...I loved what little WHFRP that I have played and occasionally ask crazy_cat if he wants to run it for our group...
...blurb about WH40K universe... ...Guess I'll have to go dig that article out and brush off my issues of White Dwarf (as if I really need another game to distract me from Mage, Elric or Dark Sun, lol!)

Funnily enough I was just thinking it might be time to run some WFRP for you guys - once Mage is out of the way, and maybe some CoC or Traveller or DS as well (depending on who else wants a turn at being GM )

Anyway, BI closing down - shocking news given the games they published were AFAIK sucessful. Suprisingly honest announcement however - no skirting round the issue of it being a purely financial decision.

Looks like 2008 could be a reasonably cheap year for me RPG wise - only 1 WFRP book due to be published, not sure about 4e, no more 3.5 stuff apart from Pathfinder, and Mongoose Traveller due next month (but honest, I'm just going for the core book )

Anyway, I'd best be off and finish writing up the rest of tomorrows Traveller adventure - this time you guys may actually get to fly in a starship and everything. Honest. Mwahahahaha...!!!!

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I was going to pick up a copy this week but I'm not so sure I want to now. Any game that does not recieve support material is going to die a quick death. I know it shouldn't, and you know it shouldn't, but its going to. I think what was going to keep momentum for DH was that as it went along we were going to get a Rogue Trader rulebook (this shuld have been the first book IMO though) and then a Space Marine one. Theres only so much you are going to be able to happily run as an Inquisitors retinue.

Hmm... I guess I'm not bothered by it as I have over 20 years of source material already. I expect the first book to lay the groundwork and I can easily take over from there.

 

[hewligan]

I bought Dark Heresy today at Waterstones in London. I got it back to the office, logged on to the Black Industries website as recommended by the guy behind the counter. He had said that they offered excellent free download material, and I was thinking I would grab some of that. Saw the announcement. Looked at the time it was posted, realised it must have literally be while I was in the bookshop buying the damn thing.

At first I felt like I had been mugged. Then I thought ... hey, another bit of gaming history to add to the collection!

Gamesworkshop is not doing well, BTW. Their stock is at a very low price right now (by historical standards, it may well still be over-priced, so I ain't recommending a purchase). Their interim results were posted on the 22nd of January, and they announced a loss, and also a write down for a big internal cost cutting exercise. I am guessing that this is part of that exercise. They have been pretty woefully managed over the last few years, and they lost BIG on over-stocking Lord of the Rings games and under-estimating just how quickly that bubble would burst.

They turned White Dwarf into a LoTR magazine, alienated a lot of their core base, and then saw the sales plummet for LoTR. They are currently in a very messy situation, and no doubt are going to refocus on their core products for a while to try and regain profitability.

Anyway, I am now the proud owner of Dark Heresy. I won't buy any of the other bits, but at least I have this little nugget of history in my hands.